October 7 [Day 42] It rained until 0915 after which the ridges quickly cleared but at the same time the W winds increased to gusts of 90-100 km/h which lasted until 1230 after which they moderated to 40-70 km/h. The afternoon was punctuated by periods of snow, the longest lasting from 1350 to 1450 during which the temperature dropped to -0.5 from a high of 7C at 1300. The clouds gradually cleared thereafter diminishing to 20% at 1900, when the W winds again increased to 80 km/h. Golden Eagle movement started almost immediately the rain stopped in the morning and 50 birds had gone south before the snow started at 1350. As soon as the snow had finished the movement resumed, peaking between 1700 and 1800 with the passage of 128 birds (99 of which moved between 1700 and 1730) producing the season’s highest hourly count so far. The birds moved fast and high against a grey cloud background and most could not be aged; in fact it took the combined efforts of Denise, Pat and I just to count them! Movement continued until 1858 when the last Golden Eagle glided very high to the south at 1858, the 285th of the day which is the highest daily count so far this season. Today’s flight comprised 67 adults, 17 subadults, 40 juveniles and 161 birds that could not be aged. The only other raptors seen were 2 unaged Sharp-shinned Hawks and a juvenile Bald Eagle. At Mount Lorette today Joel Duncan saw 50 Golden Eagles out of a total of 54 migrant raptors, and yesterday George Halmazna counted 110 raptors of which 106 were Golden Eagles: the main Golden Eagle movement is obviously well underway. Because of the adverse weather songbird movement was very thin with only 48 Grey-crowned Rosy-Finches and 42 White-winged Crossbills moving south. At 0825 I was sheltering from the rain just below the ridge in the ruins of the hoist house when a Bushy-tailed Wood Rat ran past me and later returned giving me an excellent view of the animal, which is a new mammal species for the study. 12.16 hours (480.83) BAEA 1 (58), SSHA 2 (1182), GOEA 285 (1590) TOTAL 288 (3562)